The Hat
by VeryImpressive
Summary: It started out as a petty joke, something that would both amuse her and annoy him all at the same time. She wouldn't have stolen his hat if she'd had known at the time that her life was about to be turned upside down. Well, maybe she still would have - she would never tell him, but she was enjoying the ride. [Reds, Greens, Blues]
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Blossom Utonium had to restrain herself from putting her fist through the wall.

From the perspective of an outsider, they probably would have assumed that she was angry with her sisters, and their almost biological need to throw her schedule completely off. That wasn't the case though, most people would probably be surprised to find that she had long accepted the fact that she was on the odd man out with the girls. No, contrary to the image that people had of her as the leader of the Powerpuff Girls and as the smart one of the group, that wasn't what was bothering her. What was driving her completely insane was right on top of her head and it had been sitting on top of her head since the moment she was created.

Her bow.

Not just _any_ bow.

_Her_ bow.

_The_ bow.

The bow that was on statues, in portraits, videos and the one that was generally associated with everything related to the Powerpuff Girls. It wasn't as if she hadn't tried to take it off before, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. It was such a small thing, insignificant in the long run, but it reminded her of the past and reminded her of things that would always be. In as much as saving Townsville had become a part of her identity, the bow that she had worn in her hair since her creation, in various places throughout the years, had become a part of it as well.

Now, with only an hour to go before the start of her final year at Pokey Oaks High School, seventeen year old Blossom was ready to do something that would have driven five year old Blossom to the very verge of tears and probably to a manic fit.

She was ready to take the bow off of her head.

And not just take it off, she was ready to _vaporize _it with her heat vision.

For the past six years or so, Bubbles and Buttercup had been almost begging her to take it off and change her look. She had always ignored them though and pressed on and perhaps that determination to stay the same was what contributed to her reputation as an ice queen. There were plenty of boys at their school that would want to date her and it wasn't as if she was unattractive, but most were completely intimidated by the fact that she was who she was, Blossom of the Powerpuff Girls.

Bubbles and Buttercup had made it a point to slowly distance themselves from the reputation that they had garnered as children. She hadn't choose to do that, and had ultimately choose to continue her service to the City of Townsville, and because of that, she was viewed as something of an unattainable figure at their High School.

Or for lack of a better explanation, Bubbles and Buttercup became human.

She became a snob to many people.

For those that knew her best, they knew that she was not fond of change, and any change that she was forced to accept was better off coming in slower increments than anything else. If too much change was forced upon her, she closed up on herself and stubbornly refused to accept it. Maybe that was why she had forgone getting rid of the trappings of childhood and separating herself from her reputation, she was entirely sure. All she knew was that she had definitely suffered for all of it.

Her relationship with her sisters was the greatest victim.

When the three of them first arrived in High School, they were intent on never letting themselves drift apart – and always remaining as close as they always were before, even in the midst of peer pressure and growing up. What could tear them apart? They were the Powerpuff Girls. She and her sisters had been fighting evil and crime for their whole lives, what was peer pressure going to be able to do? Blossom was darkly amused at the thought. She didn't know how wrong she was.

That was three years ago.

Since then, she and her sisters had been leading three separate lives, characterized by their nature since they were five years old. Buttercup had slowly drifted into the more athletic crowd and was mostly friends with boys – like anyone expected otherwise of her. Bubbles, as expected, drifted into the crowd of the popular girls of the school. Maintaining cheerleading, she also served on the Student Council, though Blossom was always sure that she had no conception of what it really meant to serve and be elected. She had turned out to what the objective person would have frankly expected her to turn into. It was safe, comfortable and disappointing.

As for Blossom, she was the smartest girl in school.

She was the President of the Student Council.

She was the favorite of every teacher and the spokesman for her entire class.

She was also one of the most intimidating people in her entire class.

Not that it prevented her from having relationships, but generally, she was considered too "stuck up" to have the social life of Bubbles and Buttercup. She spent most of her free time studying or working at the Mayor's office.

And that was her life.

It wasn't a great life by any means, and if she had a choice, would she go back in time and do certain things differently, she would. She did not have that luxury unfortunately, and contrary to the Professor's hopes, she did not seriously think that she and her sisters would ever be as close as they were as kids, ever again.

"So you've finally decided to take it off?" Bubbles's soft voice came from her doorway and when Blossom turned, she was almost take aback by the hesitant smile that came from her sister's face. "You should keep it like that, it's pretty."

Blossom smiled slightly and turned back to the mirror, it was very rare that she got to see her hair when it was down and she supposed that Bubbles was right. Her hair, which was almost absurdly long, drifted nicely down her back and shoulders.

It was so strange to see the bow out of her hair.

And while it did feel a little strange, it felt… _liberating_.

* * *

"Bubbles! Buttercup! I'm leaving in three minutes and if you're not down here in that time, I'm leaving without you," Blossom shouted as she arrived at the bottom of the stairs and adjusted the light lavender skirt she was wearing. On normal days, Blossom would drive them all to school in her car, which led to the inevitable complaining by Buttercup about how she should have her own. That would lead to her sharply replying that she worked for it, unlike the other two who were content to have the Professor continue to take care of them, which of course led to a fight.

While she and Buttercup were busy arguing with each other on the merits of earning a living and enjoying the rewards, Bubbles would have her head in the clouds. Her ear buds would typically be turned up to full volume and popping gum in her mouth. Despite the fact that it irritated her to no end to see her nicest sister completely tune them out, Blossom couldn't blame her. She and Buttercup had been prone to arguing their entire lives and Bubbles had never been fond of it.

When Blossom put her hands on her hips and prepared to shout at them again, a very familiar beeping hit the periphery of her hearing, very, very faintly. It wasn't so much the beeping that roused her curiosity, it was the source of the beeping.

Over the years, most of the villains that they had faced in their childhood were either dead, retired, or off to torment other parts of the world. Since then, Townsville had gained the distinction of being a city with one of the lowest crime rates in the industrialized world, and what little crime did happen was handled by police. The issues that she and her sisters handled were mostly limited to the occasional beast that lumbered from Monster Isle, or came from outer space.

That usually resulted in a call from the Miss Bellum to their cell phones.

That beeping was from old hotline though, the one that had been retired when Mojo Jojo left town. Blossom could still remember the day when Buttercup had ended up beating the monkey so badly that in his typical fit of ranting afterwards, he ended up moving to Citiesville and vowed to never, ever return to Townsville in his life.

She could remember it like yesterday, it was one of the best days of her life.

Afterwards, she, her sisters, and the Mayor's office, agreed that the old hotline would only be used for the strictest emergencies. not even an enormous monster destroying downtown would warrant a phone call on that phone. Only a direct threat to the Mayor himself would warrant a call from the hotline and it would have to be one that only she and her sisters could handle. Blossom felt that familiar urge to rush to the hotline swell up in her from the moment that beeping hit her eardrums, she'd only heard it every day of her childhood. In a way, that hotline had trained them to rush off towards City Hall, sort of how like Pavlov trained his dog.

"Is that the hotline I hear?" Buttercup's incredulous voice came from above her.

Blossom looked up towards her sister at the top of the stairs and nodded, "Yes."

And before Buttercup could formulate a response, Blossom shot off towards the kitchen where they kept the hotline, leaving a trail of light pink behind her. When they had pretty much eliminated all villainy in the city four years ago, being able to be late for school and rushing out in the middle of a class had become dramatically harder. As much as Blossom loathed the idea of missing school, if that hotline was ringing, and the Mayor was in trouble, the teachers would just have to accept it.

Picking up the phone and grimacing slightly at the ridiculously childish beeping red nose on the front of it, Blossom steeled herself and took a deep breath in, "Yes?"

"Girls?" Miss Bellum's calm voice unnerved her slightly.

That wasn't to say that Miss Bellum wasn't calm most of the time. Townsville had seen its share of dire predicaments in its existence and in all of that time, most people, save for the Mayor himself, had learned to be calm about them. There was something about her tone that made Blossom painfully aware that it was a false calm. Something bad had happened or was happening and it was frightening even Miss. Bellum, logically, Blossom knew that whatever it was needed their attention.

"It's Blossom," Blossom replied and looked behind her as Bubbles and Buttercup raced into the room. Blossom felt a trickle of nostalgia enter her mind, although at the worst possible time, as she noticed her two sisters hovering off of the ground.

It had been a long time since she had seen either of them do that outside of a battle with a massive monster.

"Good," Bellum replied, lowering her voice – she sounded as if she was purposely concealing her location, which roused Blossom's instincts even higher then they were at the moment. "I need you girls to get down here fast, they've broken into the City Hall and they're threatening to kill the Mayor unless he brings you gi-…"

Despite the flaw in Miss Bellum's logic, she knew that they had no other choice.

"We'll be down there," Blossom promised to the Mayor's longtime aide and turned to her sisters and nodded. "Can you tell us who it is? I don't want to go into this-…"

Buttercup and Bubbles watched as Blossom's face melted into a mask of shock, outrage, horror and determination – and as quickly as that happened, they were further shocked to witness Blossom drop the phone. Before either of them could possibly ask their sister what was happening, the leader of the Powerpuff Girls shot past them. Blasting out of the kitchen and out of the open sliding door that lead to the backyard, Bubbles and Buttercup followed the trail of pink as fast as they could.

* * *

Feeling Bubbles and Buttercup land to flank her on the steps of City Hall, Blossom determinedly walked forward and promptly blasted the doors off of the front of the building with her heat vision. If she was getting strange looks from her sisters, she really couldn't bring herself at this moment. In hindsight, she probably should have told them what Miss Bellum had told them, it would explain her current actions.

The fact of the matter was that she was rightly irritated and unnerved, and a little something like talking about have delayed their arrival.

Marching through the corridors of City Hall – Blossom felt the fists at her side clench progressively tighter as they neared the Mayor's office. It had been a very long time since anyone had seen them. The last time that they had fought, they nearly destroyed half of the city and killed each other. After that, the next morning, they were gone, and no matter how hard she and her sisters looked for them, they could not find them. They searched a one hundred mile radius around the City, and there had been no sign of them. It had led Blossom to conclude that they had moved onto greener pastures – and that it was probably the last time that they would ever see them. If only it had been that easy, if only they had stayed away.

For the past ten years, they were considered a non-factor.

Watching as Bubbles and Buttercup slammed open the doors to the Mayor's office, Blossom silently tried to come to grips with the fact that they were back. They had been their only enemy that had a surefire, and totally genuine, chance of destroying them. At one time, Blossom considered them only second to _Him_ in the pecking order of enemies that presented a serious threat to them and their city.

"Well, well, well, look at what we have here boys," _His_ voice grated on her neves.

Hearing Bubbles gasp from beside her, and Buttercup growl, even as a glowing green light began to form in the palm of her hand, Blossom remained calm.

Because where the Rowdyruff Boys were concerned, she had to be calm.

Anything less would lead to disorder.

And disorder would almost certainly ensure the undesired outcome.

* * *

**Authors Note: Just a little thing that would not stop bothering me, let me know if you like it, I'd like to continue it :) **


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 **

What was there to say about these boys?

They were their polar opposites in just about every single way – that was the exact purpose behind their creation, at least part of it anyway. Blossom could still remember the day that they had first met the boys, and how she had convinced herself that she would never be able to beat them. When all it took was a simple kiss to the cheek to destroy them, it amused her and her sisters to no end. When that happened, she fully expected to never, ever, lay her eyes on them ever again.

That was, until a few months later, when Him revived them.

They came back meaner, tougher, and perhaps far stupider than before.

Her eyes drifted to Boomer, to Brick's left, and she felt her lips curl in distaste for his situation. She knew Boomer, she knew what he was like, and more specifically, what he could be like, if he was not forced to be around his brothers and their influence all of the time. There was a soul inside of him, and it was a sweet one at that. She felt terrible for him, that he couldn't be himself – but frankly, unless he wanted to get out of that situation, he'd never expressed that desire, then she couldn't help him. Whatever the case was, he was a big credit to his brothers.

Locking eyes with Butch at Brick's right, she openly sneered at the boy. Butch, like Buttercup, was extremely tough and loved to get into a fight, but again, like Buttercup, and to a certain extent, like Boomer, he had a soul as well. From her observations, Butch had a massive inferiority complex with his brother Brick, it almost mirrored her relationship with his counterpart. She had never gotten the chance to exploit that weakness before they had disappeared, but Blossom had the feeling that she would get to test it, as well as a host of strategies, out on them.

Finally, she met her own counterpart's intense stare.

Brick might have enjoyed the image that he put off among his brothers, that of a complete and total idiot, but Blossom knew better. She knew better because Brick was her counterpart, and he was the male equivalent to her. He might not have been a genius, but he was smart, much smarter than he liked to let his brothers think he was.

She hoped that this was a onetime thing and that they were just passing through town, because if there was one thing that she didn't need in her life right now, it was him.

The one enemy that had managed to outthink her on numerous occasions.

"Mayor," Blossom's voice was soft, but there was a hint of steel behind it, even as she never took her eyes off of the leader of The Rowdyruff Boys. "Are you alright?"

The poor old man, having to have these idiots accosting him in his office.

Blossom held back something of a grimace as her eyes drifted down the chair that Brick was leaning on and took in the sight of the longtime "leader" of Townsville. It was generally known that Miss Bellum was the leader of the city, in all but name.

And from the idiotic smile on the Mayor's face, he probably wasn't aware of the amount of predicament that he was currently in. She had heard rumors that Miss Bellum had attempted to get him to retire some years ago, but the old man stubbornly refused and had pretty much made it clear that he would stay in office for the rest of his life.

Did the boys know this? It was probably a very good thing Miss Bellum was hiding.

The city might actually have been in trouble if she was here.

"The Mayor is fine, aren't ya' Mayor?" Brick's tone took Blossom by complete and total surprise, and it surprised her even more when the leader of The Rowdyruff Boys seemed to pet the man's head almost affectionately. If this had been in another lifetime, she might have suspected that she would have just played witness to the murder of the Mayor, they were just that violent. "We were just having a chat."

"Funny, because I got a call from someone saying that you were threatening to kill the Mayor," She shot back at him and put her hands on her hips. "Ignoring the fact that this is how you choose to return after a very peaceful decade away. Give me one reason why I shouldn't drag you, by your hair, to the nearest super-max prison."

Brick smiled in dark amusement, "You really think that it'll hold us?"

Of course it wouldn't.

But it would give her time to reorder her thoughts, and prepare for the fight.

Because there would be a fight.

"Hold you? No," She shook her head and sneered openly at him again, even as Bubbles and Buttercup began moving to stand directly in front of Boomer and Butch. "It should keep you occupied for awhile though, a day at the very most, enough time for me to get used to seeing your pleasant faces again, in any case."

"You underestimate me, _Bloss_," Brick mockingly cooed at her.

She felt her nerves burst with unrestrained rage as she allowed that damned name to get her goat. Brick had started calling her that when they were kids – the first few times she hadn't really minded it, but as the years went by, it began to deeply annoy her. Whenever she heard that name, it sent her temper rocketing skyward.

"Bubbles, Buttercup," She bit off tersely and when she felt her sister's eyes on her, she knew that she had the right plan. "You two handle dumb and dumber, I'll get the Mayor to safety – and then I'll deal with the King of the idiots – are we agreed?"

She turned to her right to see Buttercup smiling in satisfaction, "Agreed."

When she turned to Bubbles, the blonde nodded, but noticeably hesitant, "Yes."

"Go!" Blossom commanded.

In a flash of lights, and angry wailing from Buttercup, they were off.

* * *

She had set the Mayor down in Central Park, in the shadow of the volcano, knowing that he would be brought to safety there. She also did that knowing that Brick was no longer concerned with the Mayor, all of his attention was on her. Perhaps it was the thrill of the chase on his part, or maybe it was because of what she had clenched in her right hand. It was a petty, and very small action on her part, but she had enjoyed seeing the look of outrage on his face. It had been ten years since their last engagement, but the fool was still heavily attached to his damned hat.

The irony of that did not escape her at all.

As she led Brick on a chase through downtown, she could hear him trailing just behind her, shouting curses at her and demanding that she give him the hat back.

"You look hot with your hair down babe! But if you don't give me my _fucking_ hat back, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to rip that pretty hair right out of your head!" He shouted as he seemed to catch up with my speed. Risking a look back, she almost let out a laugh at the sight of Brick's long red hair flying around his big fat head.

Her amusement faded as he seemed to get closer to her.

It was only due to quick thinking that Brick didn't completely overtake her, and when Blossom delivered the swift kick to his abdomen that stopped him in his tracks, she felt satisfaction fill her. The kick caused him to shout in pain, and fly backwards, through a building and, hopefully through several more on the other side. As she turned back around and continued her flight, she let herself smile.

She hoped it hurt.

The idiot deserved it.

* * *

Still clutching Brick's hat in her hand as she touched down on the front step of her home, Blossom's mind went into action. She supposed that she should have been thinking about school, after all, the Mayor was safe and those boys had been routed for now. That wasn't what was dominating her mind though. She wanted to know why they were back, where they had been and what were they planning to do while they were back in Townsville. After all, she knew she would be seeing them again.

Looking down to Brick's rumpled hat, she grinned.

If she knew him as well as she thought he did, he wouldn't want to leave without it.

She would do the same thing if their positions were reversed and he had her bow.

"Why now! Why today! We're three hours late for school!" Buttercup's raging was what she was greeted with as she stepped into the Utonium Family living room.

"Calm down Buttercup, Miss Bellum took the liberty of contacting the school and informing them of the situation. Your teachers will give you your catch up work tomorrow if you'd prefer to stay home today," The Professor's calm voice seemed to calm her down as well as she rapidly approached the kitchen. "Now where is Blo-…"

"I'm here," Blossom was surprised by the dryness of her own voice. "And I brought a little something with me, it'll give me all the leverage I need to get my answers."

Bubbles, Buttercup and The Professor all looked up at her as she stepped through the doorway and came to join them at the kitchen table. It was Buttercup who wore the pleased smile on her face, even as she gripped her bruised lower jaw. Blossom assumed that it was because Brick's hat clutched in her hand, and she was right.

"I hope you beat his skinny little ass into the ground," Buttercup cursed.

"Buttercup," The Professor chastised lightly.

"Oh, excuse me," Buttercup replied mockingly, it wasn't so much of an act of being smart with the Professor. She was just amped up, she had always gotten that way around Butch. "Blossom, I hope you beat his _dainty little behind_ into the ground."

Blossom smiled, tossed Brick's deep red hat into the center of the table, and practically threw herself into her seat next to Bubbles. She was more than content to share in her sister's vindictiveness against The Rowdyruff Boys, she always had been. She didn't comment on Bubbles's silence, she frankly did not want to know.

Not right now anyway.

"Maybe," Blossom replied and looked up to the ceiling with a heavy sigh. It was against her nature to dislike school, but in that particular moment, she was indescribably pleased that they didn't have to go today. "I can't believe that they're back. I'm surprised that they're willing to show their faces around here again."

Beside the fact that she knew that all three of them despised Townsville, she couldn't imagine coming back to a town where she was utterly loathed by the population. The Rowdyruff Boys had no fans to begin with, but with the chaos that they had rained down upon the poor citizens of Townsville's heads, they had earned a special place in their collective heart, one that was reserved for loathing.

"Did Butch say anything to you?" Blossom asked Buttercup as she tore her eyes away from the ceiling and looked across the table at her most opinionated sister.

Buttercup certainly looked like she had gotten into a bad tussle with Butch.

The deep bruise that was on her jaw, the bloodied lower lip and nose.

She looked like she had fun.

"Since when has _he_ ever said anything even remotely intelligent?" Buttercup scoffed and nodded her hair at my insistent look. "He said that he missed me – and keep in mind that it was just after I broke his nose and threw him through a wall."

I could practically hear what Buttercup was thinking.

Butch wasn't crazy, he just enjoyed fighting a little too much, like his counterpart.

"What about you Bubbles?" Blossom turned her gaze onto her suspiciously quiet sister. She had long suspected that the girl had something of a crush on Boomer, but she couldn't prove it –and even if she could, she didn't know what she'd do.

She strongly suspected that was the reason behind her silence.

"Nothing," Bubbles replied stoically and shook her head. "He didn't say a word."

"How do you know that you'll get these answers?" Buttercup interrupted her before she could even think about even beginning to interrogate Bubbles.

Blossom looked back to Buttercup and smiled, before she pointed to the hat.

It all came down to the hat.

If someone had taken her ribbon – before she decided to stop wearing it, she would have hunted them down. If it had been Brick to take her ribbon, she would have combed every single street, alley and building in Townsville to get it back from him.

Brick would come – and Blossom would get her answers then.

* * *

"I can't believe the little _bitch_!" Brick growled and the threw his fist into the wall.

When pieces of plaster, wall and insulation began to fall in the wave of the impact, it was only then that Brick was able to pick up on Butch's groan. That was another thing that had got his temper going, the fact that those girls had easily kicked both of their asses. He wasn't even going to think about what happened in his fight with the head Powerpuff Girl, he was angry enough, "Easy – we're renting this place."

Like Brick gave half a damn about what his landlord would think when he came to inspect the place. Ignoring the urge to sent a similar cutting remark to his brother, Brick began to pace the length of the living room, trying to regain his temper.

And his rational thought.

It was just a hat.

If Blossom could maintain an attachment to that fucking bow that she wore in her hair and then finally let it go, he could do it too. He was just as smart as her, he was just as strong as her – and despite what she thought, he _was_ better than her.

Still, it was _his_ hat!

And he wanted it back!

"Dude," Brick rolled his eyes as Boomer wanted to get his two cents in. "We got our asses handed to us by them, badly, but you don't see us wanting to go over there and commit murder. Just calm the fuck down and have a beer, we'll get the hat-…"

"I want my hat now!" Brick bellowed back at his brother.

"Then stop bitching about it and go get it," Butch cast him an annoyed glare and turned his eyes back to the TV, his words coming out mangled by the icepack he held to his jaw. "If you even ask her nice enough, she might actually give it back."

Brick rolled his eyes and spun on his two brothers on the couch.

"Oh, I'm going to get it back, but not when she's expecting me to do it," Brick proclaimed an turned on his heels to march out of the living room.

Ignoring Butch's whispered insult of how big of a drama queen he was, he continued to fume on the journey to his bedroom.

Blossom was the only one that was capable of driving him completely insane.

Perhaps coming back to this city hadn't been such a good idea.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Blossom's Point of View**

I didn't care about the looks that I had gotten.

Or the looks that I continued to get when I left school for work.

That morning, after the fight with The Rowdyruff Boys, I woke up feeling an intense sensation of smug satisfaction. I had beaten him, and I had done it all by myself and the best part was that he had been so overconfident that he hadn't even seen it coming. It was because of his error in judgment that I was able to swipe the hat right off of his fat head, and when I woke up, I decided that I was going to do what Brick would do in my position. I was going to flaunt my trophy with unbridled pride. I didn't care how absurd I looked to them, or how utterly unfashionable my blouse and skirt were with a backwards red cap. I walked around with Brick's hat on my head all day, people were so stunned that they didn't even tell me to take it off.

My _only_ regret was that I wasn't going to be able to see Brick's initial reaction to how I had commandeered his most favorite, and to my knowledge, only hat.

In the middle of my AP Government class, I briefly toyed with the idea of offering my share of the past month's royalties on all Powerpuff Girl Merchandising to Boomer and Butch, just so they could record Brick's reaction. If I wasn't completely sure that the idiots wouldn't do it - I might have actually made them that offer.

Reaching into my purse and fishing out my car keys, I took a deep breath in and continued my walk through City Hall's parking lot. No one had given me any problems at work, and Miss Bellum even smiled at the hat. I probably wouldn't be able to pull this act off tomorrow, but the memories of the reactions would be enough to sustain me for a lifetime. I would mock Brick about this for the rest of our lives – and if he didn't like it, I would do it some more, and again, and again.

Brick had a special talent to make me petty and low.

He was the only one, and I repeat, the only one that had ever driven me crazy.

When I neared my designated parking space, I pressed the unlock button on the keypad – I was looking forward to going home and crawling into bed. The Rowdyruff Boy's stunt yesterday had screwed up my schedule pretty good, and it had forced me to give extra to both school and work to catch up. Life would probably be easier if I was Bubbles or Buttercup, only having to worry about school and whatnot, but I wasn't like that – I had ambition, and socializing got in the way.

Looking up from the pavement as I heard a deep laugh coming from the vicinity of my car, I did a double take when I saw a man sitting on top of the hood. When it finally sunk in that the dark haired, green eyed man was Butch – I readied myself for a fight. I'd never let him know, but I was also readying myself for injuries.

Buttercup was the only one of us who could fight to his level and not get hurt.

"Relax _pinky_, I'm not here to fight," Butch held his hands up in surrender and leaned back against my hair. It would probably take a little more force to damage the car, but that didn't stop me from wanting him to get off of it. I would make sure that he suffered if he damaged my car. "I'm just here to talk, so please, _unclench_."

I lowered the fighting posture that I had taken, very slowly, and narrowed my eyes on the most violent of The Rowdyruff Boys. Butch was just as handsome as any of his brothers, some would say pretty even, just like his brothers, but underneath those eyes – there lurked the mind of a brute. "What are you here to talk about?"

He was a brute that I did not like being alone with.

"I see that you're wearing Brick's hat?" Butch's eyes drifted up to my head.

I nodded and Butch threw his head back in another bark of laughter, "Excellent."

"Excuse me?" I raised an eyebrow in confusion, he seemed happy?

I did not like happy Rowdyruff Boys – not at all.

"I have to hand it to you Blossom, you choose the one thing that would probably piss him off more than anything else," Butch seemed genuinely amused as he slid his legs off the side of my car and hopped down onto the pavement. "And you're wearing it too! That's just going to be an extra kick in the balls for him! I love it!"

I put my hands on my hips, "I do try."

"I know you do, and that's why I'm giving you this courtesy," Butch's voice quieted down slightly as he got closer to me. "Now, as far as Boomer and Brick are concerned, I'm out robbing a liquor store – and if they ask, which they won't, but if they do, that was what I was out doing tonight. Do we have an agreement?"

This was all so confusing.

Setting aside the shock that I was feeling over the fact that Butch had become eloquent in his old age, I began to mentally calculate the odds that this was a trap of theirs. There was the possibility that Brick had ordered his brother to do this, but there was also the possibility that Butch was doing this on his own. Under either circumstance, I did not know what to do – so I just stood there, gaping at him.

I know I looked stupid, standing there at eight o'clock at night, hair whipping gently against my face, jaw dropped. I only actually stopped when I realized that I was acting like this in front of Butch, "Agreed, but if this is some sort of trick, I swe-…"

"Believe me, I know the risk that I'm taking," Butch shook his head in exasperation and then folded his arms over his chest. As soon quickly as his moment of seriousness came, it ended when Butch plastered a lecherous grin on his face and took a moment to survey my body. "Speaking of which, Blossom, you are hot."

I rolled my eyes, "Is that the big secret that you're trying to tell me?"

"That you're hot? No, everyone with eyes sees that," Butch grinned.

"Get to the point," I sighed in irritation. "I'm hungry, and thanks to you and your idiot brothers, I am very sore and very tired. Unless you want me to murder you, you had better say what you came to say, or get away from me _very_ quickly."

Butch grinned slightly and nodded, before looking down to the pavement and kicking it slightly with the heel of his shoe, "Alright, I just wanted to let you know that Brick is very angry with you pinky. He's been plotting a way to get back at you, and get his hat back, from the moment we got back home. I'm doing this because I want to see Brick taken down a peg, so please watch your back Blossom."

And before I could even begin to think of a suitable retort, Butch took off.

As I watched the streak of green light fade away, I looked back down to the pavement and scowled.

Of all of things that I had expected to come from a Rowdyruff Boy…

That had not been it.

* * *

**Brick's Point of View**

I could not believe that I was doing this.

It was beneath me.

I always feared that if I took this step and actually agreed to it, then I would be no better than Blossom. Several years ago, the thought would have made me sick, and if someone, namely Butch, would have compared me to her, it would have earned them a punch in the fucking jaw. We were made to be polar opposites of them in just about every way, and somehow the thought of being like her was included too.

Things had changed.

I had changed.

I would never admit it out of the safety of my own inner thoughts, but I was taking this step for more than just revenge. Sure, it was a big part of it - I wanted to make her squirm with complete and total paranoia. The little bitch had stolen my hat and she had the nerve to be so... so damn smug about it, it was so... Blossom.

I knew this would work and frankly, I would enjoy every moment of it.

In a way, we had virtually identical minds - and I knew that seeing me walk into her classroom, books in hand, would drive her over the edge. When I would sit next to her, open my book - and be a _good boy_, she would lose her mind with paranoia.

It was perfect.

Signing my name to the bottom of the form, capping my pen and setting the form that would allow me late entry to Pokey Oaks High School, I tapped the pen against the surface of my desk and grinned. This was going to be an interesting experience.

Barring the reaction from Boomer and Butch, which I knew would not be good, I was fairly excited. Not just for the pleasure of seeing Blossom twitch in paranoia.

I... wanted to learn this stuff.

I would be a good boy at school.

I wouldn't so much as swat at fly if it got into my face.

By the end of the school year in the summer of next year, I would be Valedictorian, I would take all of the scholarships and I would take everything away from Blossom. This was revenge, not some half-assed fist fight, this was real revenge.

Nothing could take the smile off of my face tonight.

* * *

**Blossom's Point of View**

"You're not going to guess who I saw come into the Vice Principal's office this morning," Robin said and I rolled my eyes, before putting my pen down and giving her a patient look. She had been my study partner since Freshman year, and though most of the time she was on task, there were times when I wanted to hit her on the head. "Oh don't give me that look, you know you want to know him."

That wasn't entirely untrue.

I did want to know.

"Him?" I raised a single eyebrow.

Why did I have a bad feeling about that?

"Brick Jojo," And for some incomprehensible reason, Robin seemed pleased by this development. She seemed to be completely forgetting the fact that wherever he went, trouble followed and it would be the same for the school and it's students.

But I had forgotten, Brick was pretty.

And Robin was a normal teenage girl.

She had no conception of what I suspected was about to happen, or the danger that everything was now under. She had no conception of what kind of pressure this was going to be me and my sisters under, with more emphasis on me. If she knew that school administration, which she didn't, then she would have realized that they were more than likely going to force me to keep an eye on him all day.

"Get out," I commanded.

I wasn't angry with Robin, not at all – in fact, I could easily say that I was grateful that she had told me that this was going to happen. The odds of my reaction being any better of just seeing Brick turn up at school would have probably been far worse and far more dangerous. In my anger, and probably in a brash, knee-jerk reaction – I would attack him, destroy half of the school, injure, or perhaps kill dozens. No, Robin was right in telling me and I would make it a point apologize to her later on. It was after I reconciled the fact that Brick would, most likely, be joining me at school. If I was going to counter him, I did need to think about this.

If I did not start thinking this out rationally, I would do something irrational.

And that would lead to my undoing.

"What's wrong Blossom?" I looked up from my notebook to find Bubbles standing in the doorway – an obviously concerned look on her face. "Robin just left suddenly."

"Get Buttercup up here, I have something to tell the both of you," I ordered her.

Bubbles nodded and turned on her heels to the leave the doorway, and left me to deal with my own thoughts.

When did things get so mucked up?

Years ago, I would been so close to my sisters that it would have been painful, I would have been able to share everything with them. Nowadays, the only talking that we seemed to do with each other was when we were out saving the city. I couldn't even tell them about the physiological war that I was now in with Brick.

I suppose that I could, really.

When the both of them got up here, it would be a perfect time to tell them that Brick was going to be attending our school, and probably for the sole purpose of annoying me. That could give us something to bond over, something to repair our relationship to make it look like something that it once did, a long time ago.

Though that hope quickly faded when reality set in.

Bubbles, Buttercup and I were three different people now, we were not just The Powerpuff Girls anymore. The odds of us going to back to that dynamic within our relationship was extremely low. This move by Brick, and possibly his brothers, might bring us closer again, but for all intents and purposes, that was in the past.

"What is it Your Highness?!" Buttercup spat off sarcastically as she and Bubbles came into my room only a few minutes later. It was Buttercup's attitude that made the idea of reconciliation a long shot and it made it incredibly unlikely to happen.

Waiting until Bubbles came to sit down on my bed, and watching as Buttercup leaned up against the wall, I looked down to my notebook to decide on an approach and only opened my mouth when I found an approach, "You two know that Robin got assigned to work as the Office Assistant this semester? You did know that?"

Buttercup rolled her eyes and nodded, "Yes."

I glowered menacingly, not in the mood to tolerate her abrasive attitude, especially in the face of Brick's actions, "Well, today she saw Brick leaving the Vice Principal's office – who is in charge of admissions. She didn't say anything about it, but I'm fairly sure that Brick was picking up admission forms, so I just wanted to let you-…"

"Are you saying that they're coming to our school?" _That_ got Buttercup's attention better than any thread that I could level against her. I understood why it did of course, it was the same reason that I was, but it was still deeply insulting to me.

I shrugged, but nodded nevertheless, "She didn't know, but why else would he show up to our school? Why else would he show up and now want to cause havoc? That's the only logical conclusion that I can think of – do you two have any ideas?"

"What about the other two?" Buttercup's voice was less abrasive and hostile, which meant that she did understand why she had been called up to my room – but was no less still annoyed by it. I hoped that she was not going to make an ass out of herself when Brick, and quite possibly, his brothers, turned up at school tomorrow.

I shook my head, "I don't know – it was just Brick that showed up."

"If he does show up, what do you want to do?" When Bubbles's voice sounded for the first time, I did everything I could to hide my double take and turn to look at her. The normally bubbly, and perky Bubbles shut in on herself whenever the conversation turned to The Rowdyruff Boys, for the incredibly obvious reasons.

"Provided he's the only one that shows up, they're probably going to make him my responsibility to manage," I answered her quietly, and then forced a smile onto my face. "Of course, there is the possibility that all three of them show up tomorrow."

"And they're going to force us all to watch after them," Buttercup concluded.

"You better believe it," I concluded grimly.

God help Butch if he decided to come to school with his brother, she was not going to tolerate him there. There was the good possibility that Bubbles wouldn't either and I wasn't looking forward to seeing that at all. They both viewed school as their escape from _that_life – and if those two intruded on it, the results wouldn't be good.

They had worked hard to separate themselves as superhero's from the rest of our classmates, and if those two came to our school, they would not be able to stay that way. They would need to be on their guard to protect themselves from those boys, and stop whatever they tried to do when they were attending our school.

They'd have to get over it though.

Then again, I could handle Brick.

I _would_ handle Brick and his half-assed maneuvering, _with or without_ the girls.


End file.
